Sunday, June 2, 2013

THE MED BEAT: Apps

How many times in the last year have you heard any of the
following sentences?

“Check out this new app I just got...”

“I’ve got the best idea for a new app, I just need to find a
programmer...”

“This app is like actually sooo helpful!”

Whether you’ve got an iPhone or not, chances are you know
what an “app” is and are likely overwhelmed with the shear app-fever that has
taken hold of Western society in the last five years.

There are apps available for nearly every conceivable idea
(including conception itself as seen below) and yet somehow new and novel ideas
are made available to consumers at a rate of hundreds per day.

The term “app” actually applies to programs for both Apple
and non-Apple devices and can be found on a variety of gadgets other than the
iPhone or iPad. The term is actually much older than its relatively recent
explosive popularity, as it came into existence as an abbreviation for the word
“application” more than 15 years ago and continues to apply to many forms of
software apart from games, social media programs, and nearest fast-food
locators...

But the problem with apps is not their availability, but
rather their excessive and constantly growly numbers, which can cause many
useful ideas for convenient lifestyle additions to be lost in an ever-deepening
sea of colorful finger-sized icons.

In the spirit of this column and my obsessive nerdification
of health science, I would like to highlight some of the contributions that the
app craze has given to patient-driven healthcare by listing some of the
health-related apps currently available and elaborating a few of the more
intriguing ones that are both fascinating now and that carry significant
prospects for the future.

1. Ovuline

This novel idea came into existence around five years ago
with its first version: Smart Fertility, an app which sought to predict a
woman’s ovulation periods based on a set of simple stats specific to the user
(a woman trying to get pregnant).

Timing can mean everything...

Ovuline now uses a complex algorithm that incorporates data pertaining to the woman’s current condition (such as basal temperature, cervical fluid analysis, ovulation test results, physical symptoms, mood, etc.) and matches them up with lifestyle metrics (such as activity, weight, nutrition and sleep patterns) to accurately predict a woman’s most fertile days of her cycle: ovulation.

With the average user becoming pregnant within 2 months of
signing up and using Ovuline, it seems to actually be working quite well. The
founders of the app promise to continue updating their algorithm and expanding
to pregnancy tracking as well as increase the personalization of the app,
perhaps even taking the male partner’s status into account as well...

2. Time2brush

This child-oriented app turns brushing your teeth (and therefore dental hygiene and oral health) into a game. It teaches children how to properly brush their teeth by using a diagram that shows where to brush and a musical timer to tell them how long. It also awards point for each successful brush session and encourages children to stay on top of their teeth cleaning!

A slightly more complex version geared to wards adults
(called OralEye) allows home users to snap photos of their mouth and send them
off with a short dental history to a dentist. Most responses are quite quick
and can help guide the patient with what to do next for their symptoms and
suggested diagnosis.

3. Fitness apps

There are many different shapes, colors, and types of
fitness apps that can do anything from keep a log of your workouts to map your
runs, demonstrate exercises and stretches, and even factor in your heart rate,
caloric intake, hydration, and advise changes to your routine in order to reach
pre-programed fitness goals. Never before has it been easier to have a personal
trainer literally in the palm of your hand, and what’s more is that it can be
free!

I didn’t list any specific app in particular here because
there are so many out there and each one fits the taste of a certain person,
but check them out, they could be the missing piece in your ever-fleeting
attempt to ‘actually get into shape’.

There are also a multitude of potentially helpful lifestyle
monitoring apps that can keep track of complicated histories of everything from
your food intake, to sleep patterns, to every possible metric for mothers and
their newborns, to glucose levels and even hearing capabilities, all of which
can be generally printed out and brought in to the doctor’s office to assist
with understanding condition development and paint a fuller picture of a
patient’s history.

Buyer BEWARE:

Healthcare, like any other facet of the global economy, is a
consumer activity that ranges from international organizations to intensive
care units at a big hospitals to the Google-searching self-diagnoser sitting at
home on their couch. However, the internet-propagated availability of health
information through self-diangostic applications like WebMD, iTriage, or
HealthTap has turned health care into an epidemic of health scare,
so try not to get overwhelmed with everything that’s out there!

Remember to always take online diagnostic tools with a grain
of salt and to use them as a guide, not a death sentence. If you do find
yourself genuinely concerned with your current state of health, then make an
appointment with your doctor, have a conversation with them, and go from there.

My name is Kurtis Morrish. I graduated from Cal last year as an Integrative Biology major. I am now in the process of applying to medical school in the hopes of one day serving people as a family doctor. By no means do I write to you as an M.D., but I have extensive experience doing all kinds of scientific research; boiling-down long, dry, mumbo-jumbo-dense medical journals into a reduction that is a little sweeter, useful, and hopefully informative for you. I hope to learn as much from my writing as you do, so please hit me up with further questions, concerns, or comments!

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